It is the way in which a company or organization is organized, including the types of relationships that exist between the directors . Former Senior Policy Analyst, Former Managing Director, Immigration Policy, Silva Mathema, Zefitret Abera Molla, Kiera Manser, Jared C. Bass, Jesse OConnell, Haneul Lee, Tobias Harris, Alan Yu, Lawrence J. Korb, Kaveh Toofan. As discussed above, broad interpretation of DHS authorities by former department officials has led to questionable activities and occasions of abuse or violations, particularly in the immigration space.75 One example of these broad authorities occurred when the Trump administration deployed DHS officials to respond to protests in Portland, Oregon, where the administration stretched legal authorities to justify activities that harmed the public that DHS is supposed to serve. See the organizational chart for the Department of Homeland Security. Collections Infographics Keywords Intelligence Community Topics Homeland Security Enterprise Intelligence and Analysis An official website of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. While it is beyond the scope of this report to detail where every subcomponent within DHS belongs, components that are primarily focused on investigating violations of federal laws should most naturally live within the FBI, the lead agency charged with investigating criminal activity. How has the departments mission changed since its creation? Cyberattacks on critical infrastructure are increasingly common and could grind the U.S. economy and daily life to a halt if targeted toward the electrical grid or communications and internet services. At the same time, DHS should step back from roles where it is neither needed nor best suited. 714 0 obj <>stream dhs DHS . But viewing immigration law violations, which are often civil in nature, through a punitive lens has resulted in a heavy-handed approach at the border and in the interior. The Biden administration and Congress have the opportunity to transform DHS into an agency that provides much greater value to the American people and those who visit or seek safety or opportunity here. )M&bmVAi[-yH]R$[T >sp6Ih9}gOEj@0!C~oB?gc&q c)m1sm4`8RD? Since the creation of DHS, challenges related to the foundations of the department and its operations have inhibited its performance. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, enacted in December 2004, established the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to lead intelligence integration across the 17 components that make up the U.S. intelligence community (IC). Pandemics can uproot daily life and economic security when border-screening measures fail to halt early transmission. Congress has repeatedly attempted to guide DHS and shape the prioritization of its missions but has achieved little success. Beyond the information the department collects and retains, DHS also has an important role to play in safeguarding the security of personal or private information from malicious cyberactors and foreign governments. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created nearly 20 years ago in response to catastrophic terrorist attacks on the United States. The recent SolarWinds hack affected an estimated 18,000 government and private computers at the departments of Justice, State, Treasury, Energy, and Commercean alarming national security attack perpetrated by the Russian government.50 One of the notable successes from the Trump administrations DHS was that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) carved out a clear and useful role for itself as the Nations risk advisor, working with partners to defend against todays threats and collaborating to build more secure and resilient infrastructure for the future.51 There is a clear need for further developing the U.S. response by expanding the indicators and mechanisms for sharing cyberthreat information. After looking at each homeland security organizational structure, a number of recommendations were made that could benefit each entity. Recognizing the challenges DHS faces, the department remains critical to the safety and well-being of many. That might mean proactively engaging with American businesses, alongside CBP, to inform efforts to improve the movement of goods and people across borders or refining immigration services so that processes dignify and welcome those who seek to invest their talents here. What Is an Organizational Structure? But the benefits of removing these problematic entities would be well worth the cost in bureaucratic coordination and would help move toward significant reforms in the immigration system that are long overdue. At the national level, DHSs attention and political emphasis is out of balance with many of todays most serious threats. Working as the Nations risk advisor, the CISA partners with the private and public sectors to defend against threats and build more secure and resilient infrastructure for the future.61 DHS should scale efforts being led by the CISA to prioritize partnership with stakeholders across its missions and priorities. It then provides an analysis of DHSs challenges, highlighting long-standing foundational problems, including where the department is absent or not contributing. dataLayer.push({"event": "signup_submit", "form_detail":"enSubscribeSlideUp"}); endstream endobj 697 0 obj <>/Metadata 35 0 R/OCProperties<>/OCGs[702 0 R]>>/PageLabels 692 0 R/PageLayout/OneColumn/Pages 694 0 R/PieceInfo<>>>/StructTreeRoot 49 0 R/Type/Catalog>> endobj 698 0 obj <>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text]>>/Rotate 0/StructParents 0/Tabs/S/Type/Page>> endobj 699 0 obj <>stream And with a clear intelligence mission, DHS can redouble its efforts as originally envisioned to facilitate the communication of threat information between the federal government, state and local authorities, and the private sector, while also ensuring that its intelligence activities are not beyond the scope of its authorities or redundant to activities conducted by other intelligence agencies. The organizational structure of the Department of Health and Human Services includes a Chief Executive Officer who is appointed by the Governor and subject to confirmation by a majority vote of the members of the Nebraska Legislature. This rebalancing does not ignore or downplay the risks that threaten American security and prosperity; rather, it properly focuses DHSs role on where it is positioned to be most effective rather than overlapping or duplicating the work of other federal agencies. We are sincerely thankful for their support. This would require new interpretations on current legal constraints in this area, 62 close collaboration with civil society groups to ensure communications do not violate civil rights and liberties or unfairly target vulnerable communities, as well as a more amplified role for the officer of civil rights and civil liberties. The Biden administration should also work with Congress to significantly increase resources in future appropriations toward the secretarys front office to be more commensurate with the bureaucracys size and scope, ideally through reallocations within the existing budget. Finally, this report proposes near- and longer-term steps that the current administration could take to realize this vision and deliver better value for the American people. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. By fully realizing the role envisioned for the secretary of DHS in Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5enhancing the ability of the United States to manage domestic incidents by establishing a single comprehensive national incident management system68as the principal federal official for domestic incident management, DHS can serve as a force multiplier for the rest of the federal government and use its institutional memory to improve Americas resilience to anything that humankind or nature throws its way. I&A should reduce or eliminate its efforts to provide strategic intelligence on counterterrorism trends that are well covered by other departments and agencies. %%EOF Learn about our sister organization, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, an advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans. The TSAs Federal Air Marshal Service provides additional passenger safety on commercial passenger flights. Cybersecurity now demands a whole-of-government solution to protect national security, critical infrastructure, intellectual property, and sensitive personal information. endstream endobj 700 0 obj <>stream DHS should prioritize service and partnerships, connecting people in the United States to federal services and providing value to the American people and those who live, study, work, travel, or seek safety here. These law enforcement roles enable the safety and services model to operate. DHS has a key role in CBPs primary function, facilitating safely the transfer of goods and people, with its related enforcement component supporting that function. A well-managed border will be safe and secure while also efficiently offering different services needed to travel, trade, or seek asylum in the United States. 2i{,g%_,=@,(}H30h*cD@ J But the current DHS operating emphasis precludes its effectiveness in squarely meeting this central mission or fulfilling unmet needs today. DHS I&A has long focused diffusely, to the detriment of focusing more precisely where it can make unique contributions. But meaningful change will also require headquarters-level prioritization and the establishment of new internal incentives to drive CBPs cultural evolution. Future enforcement activities need to be balanced within broader department goals of safety and service and focused exclusively where DHS is the lead actor rather than in areas in which other federal agenciessuch as, for example, the DOJplay a leading role. The Center for American Progress believes that having a Cabinet agency such as DHS remains critical to the safety and well-being of Americans. It recommends that DHS adopt a new safety and services model, outlined above, that increases its emphasis on connecting, communicating, facilitating, welcoming, and helping, while simultaneously recalibrating its focus on external threats by bringing its emphasis on protecting, securing, preventing, and enforcing into better balance with its other priorities. In the absence of a clear and well-defined mission, DHS has too often tried to make itself a utility player on every issue, arguing that it has authorities and capabilities that others lack. The Center for American Progress is an independent nonpartisan policy institute that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. At a minimum, your org structure should include employees' titles and basic hierarchies. Finally, I&A should develop intelligence from those partners to share with the rest of the IC, within the appropriate guardrails of civil liberties and privacy protections against stereotypes and biased profiling. It is time to reimagine what it means to keep America safe, secure, and prosperous in todays world and to recalibrate the priorities of the department charged with doing so. And new findings reveal other factors hindering DHSs performance which have dramatically worsened over the past few years, pointing to additional challenges for DHS that should be addressed. Attachment(s): The Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services provides leadership, coordination, and support to prevent, protect against, prepare for, respond to, recover from, and mitigate disasters and other emergencies. DHS was formally established as a stand-alone, Cabinet-level department on March 1, 2003, bringing 22 federal agencies under one umbrella to coordinate efforts to secure the homeland. DHS could also play an important role in countering disinformation in partnership with the State Departments Global Engagement Center. Since its founding, there has been persistent confusion about DHSs role as well as complaints about its structure, operations, and oversight. Understanding the opportunities DHS has today is critical to transforming the agency to better meet unfulfilled needs around Americans safety and security, to address the issues that emerged or significantly worsened during the past four years, and to focus attention on the right set of priorities for the department going forward. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS But there is no agency that currently leads the federal governments efforts at the national level to share information, advocate for greater government transparency, or develop new communications capacities that add value to the American people. Moving toward the safety and services model outlined in this report would allow DHS to calibrate its activities within a new mission maximally focused on delivering value to America. Renewing the DHS workforce also is critical to the departments long-term success. Chief Information Officer - Steve Buche. In doing so, DHS can uniquely enlist the private sector and the American people in protecting the nation. We at U.S. The departments threat-oriented roles will, of course, remain, but this new framework will help DHS realign its focus and priorities on those areas where it can be maximally effective and provide value to the American people and those who live, study, work, travel, and seek safety here. CBP focuses on keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the United States while facilitating lawful travel and trade. var onSuccessSubmitenSubscribeFooter = function() { Meanwhile, the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) office, housed within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has ballooned to 7,100 agents in 225 cities nationwide and is now one of the largest federal investigative agencies within the U.S. government.24 HSI claims broad legal authority to investigate a wide range of domestic and international criminal activities arising from the illegal movement of people, goods, money, and contraband into and within the United States and has access to the information stored in the CIRS database. This will also help reduce DHSs involvement in activities better left to other federal agencies that have more appropriate authorities, experience, and workforces, while ensuring that Americas security needs continue to be addressed by the federal government. CAP also recognizes that the safety and services framework proposed will, in many areas, be enabled by the departments threat management capabilities. The Department of Health Services has ten divisions and offices that work to protect and promote the health and safety of the people of Wisconsin, helping everyone live their best life. It also helps ensure that DHS capacity is aligned to where DHS has the most to contribute. DHS officials should conduct a human capital needs assessment, properly screen individuals with ties to extremist groups, and ensure department personnel receive adequate training before they are sent into the field. It would also provide a framework through which officials could then turn to reforming the structure of DHS, to determine which elements of the agency need to stay within DHS and which may better fit within other parts of the bureaucracy. if(subscribe.checkValidity()) { A more ambitious approach would involve making the protection of personal information and privacy a core DHS mission, assigning DHS the lead federal agency for protecting the privacy of U.S. persons information. Close collaboration with civil society groups will be key to ensuring these rights are respected. What does DHS need to do, and what is better left to, or better done by, other departments and agencies? Todays digital environment means that our critical infrastructure is more connected and more dependent on functioning cybersecurity than ever. Threats from domestic violent extremism are rapidly growing in the United States and endanger our way of life, our values, and our democracy.52 CAP has called for a strong, coordinated response that marshals the weight of the federal government and uses the right tools, developed using fact-based evidence, to reduce the likelihood of violent attacks before they occur.53 While federal efforts to respond to domestic violent extremism primarily fall within the FBIs authority, and because there are strong arguments that some prevention efforts would be better housed in the departments of Education or Health and Human Services, there is no agency charged with taking the lead in countering disinformation, coordinating federal grantmaking programs to promote resilience (along with the DOJs Office of Justice Programs), and providing support for risk-based prevention responses. ` " It screens and vets travelers, interacts with asylum-seekers and aspiring citizens, provides emergency support during natural and human-made disasters, and performs certain law enforcement functionseach of which results in the collection and retention of information on U.S. persons. U.S. For example, CBP could greatly benefit from specialized training of its Border Patrol agents to initiate a cultural change of its workforce and prepare them to handle asylum-seekers at the border humanely and fairly. Department leadership should work to clearly set limits on enforcement activities and constrain them appropriately to ensure past mistakes and abuses are not repeated and work with Congress to codify these restrictions. (see p. 23). There are 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any . The dominating focus on counterterrorism comes at the expense of other activities that DHS is uniquely positioned to execute among federal agencies such as providing efficient, safe, and respectful immigration services; facilitating international trade and travel; serving as the nations risk adviser for critical infrastructure; and proactively responding to disasters that do not fall within the missions of other parts of the federal bureaucracy. This recalibration of department activities will better fulfill the unmet needs of Americans and those who live, study, work, travel, and seek safety here. Likewise, while CAP has long argued that the nation should move away from a system based on large-scale immigration detention and toward alternatives such as community supervision,80 for the limited immigration detention that would remain, it would be more effective to have this function merged with, for example, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), also under the DOJ. Rob Ries is the Health and Human Services Commission's deputy executive commissioner of Compliance and Quality Control. , an advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans. var subscribe = document.getElementById('enSubscribeSlideUp'); Official websites use .gov CAP recommends that DHS components that are primarily or exclusively focused on enforcing federal laws should be transferred to other federal departments. Finally, it would ensure that DHS is most effectively positioned to solve national challenges. Joel Martinez is the Mexico policy analyst for National Security and International Policy at the Center. DHS could have played a larger role in responding to the severe winter storms that crippled the electrical grid in Texas in early 2021. They lent us their time and expertise over the past six months to help shape our understanding of what the mission and value proposition of DHS should be in todays world in order to address the needs, challenges, and opportunities facing the nation and to develop and refine our recommendations. Department of Homeland Security Organizational Chart, available at, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, FY 2020 Budget in Brief (Washington: 2020), available at, Warrick and Durkovich, Future of DHS Project; Cordero, Reforming the Department of Homeland Security Through Enhanced Oversight & Accountability., Partnership for Public Service, Best Places to Work Agency Rankings (Washington: 2021), available at, Manny Fernandez and others, People Actively Hate Us: Inside the Border Patrols Morale Crisis,, Tal Kopan, Trumps executive orders dramatically expand power of immigration officers, CNN, January 28, 2017, available at, Paul J. Angelo, Why Central American Migrants Are Arriving at the U.S. Border (Washington: Council on Foreign Relations, 2021), available at, Anneliese Hermann, Asylum in the Trump Era: The Quiet Dismantling of National and International Norms (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2018), available at, Center for Migration Studies, President Bidens Executive Action on immigration, available at, Bill Whitaker, SolarWinds: How Russian Spies Hacked the Justice, State, Treasury, Energy, and Commerce Departments, CBS News, February 14, 2021, available at, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, About CISA, available at. The initiative should consider what changes might be needed in human capital and launch programs to realign the future workforce accordingly. DHS still has an important role to play in preventing attacks against the United States and Americans at home and abroad. 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